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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview With Dick Gephardt
Aired November 06, 2001 - 08:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now some more on airport security. The weekend breach of security at O'Hare Airport in Chicago comes only days after the House of Representatives approved an airline security bill at odds with a Senate version. And now, Congress is under pressure to come up with a compromise over just who will have responsibility for airport security.
The house minority leader Dick Gephardt just finished a congressional leadership breakfast at the White House. He joins us now from the North Lawn. Good to have you with us, Mr. Gephardt.
REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: How was breakfast, what was the topic of discussion there?
GEPHARDT: Well, we talked a lot about airline security. Obviously, we need to get this bill done, we should have gotten it done, I thought, 3 weeks ago, but we have got to get it done now. We talked about the incident in Chicago -- gives added emphasis to getting this done as quickly as possible. We just got to get people to compromise, to negotiate, to lean forward and solve these problems and get a bill out there, and start changing this system for the better.
O'BRIEN: Well, give us a sense of the time line, now that its in a conference committee. Senate version and House version very much at odds over the issue of exactly who does this screening. What's your best case scenario for something coming out of that conference committee?
GEPHARDT: Well, the House is going to appoint conferees today. I think the Senate is likely to do it either today or tomorrow. My hope is that we can get a bill done by the end of the week. I don't see a reason that we can't push and get this done before we leave here this week. Again, implementing is going to take some time, so we've got to get the bill done. The journey of a thousand miles starts with the the first step. We need to take that step.
O'BRIEN: I assume you are hearing from some constituents who might be a little bit perturbed that it's reduced to a little bit of partisan rancor here, when we've got a very serious issue, the point underscored with this issue in Chicago. Is there some concern that Congress is fiddling while Rome is burning? GEPHARDT: Well, I get that sense when I talk to constituents. I think people are just frustrated with our inability to get this done. There has been some ideological thinking come into this. Whether these people should be federal or not, all federal.
I think we have got to stop the music, get an agreement done this week, and, again, get it implemented. There's a lot of things in this bill other than who are the x-ray scanners. There's the machines so we x-ray every bag that goes in the baggage hold, which is not done today. There's money and an effort for sky marshals in many more of the planes. Up to five, 6,000 sky marshals. So we need to get this bill finished, and, again, get the system improved. Hopefully beginning before the holiday season.
O'BRIEN: All right. We are running out of time, but I just want to ask you before you get away about the president's discussion, teleconference, if you will, to terrorism conference in Poland this morning. You get the sense the administration is trying very hard to stem the tide on the propaganda campaign of the aspect of this war. Has the administration failed in that respect, focusing more on the military aspects and is thus in a difficult position right now?
GEPHARDT: Well, I think we failed over the years in getting our message out to that part of the world, and to the Middle East, and many other places in the world. We've had Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, a lot of efforts, but they need to be reviewed, they need to be modernized, and I think the administration is now aware that we're playing catch-up and we got to get our message out there. If we put our mind to it, we've got the best people at doing this, and we'll get our message across to the people all over the Middle East and all over the world.
O'BRIEN: Richard Gephardt is the House Minority Leader. Democrat of Missouri, thanks very much for being with us, as always. Appreciate it.
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